National 400 metres champion Morgan Mitchell is taking inspiration from her childhood friend and NBA draft pick Dante Exum ahead of her Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow.

Exum was last week chosen by the Utah Jazz as the fifth overall pick in the draft, with several observers predicting a stellar professional career ahead for the Melbourne 18-year-old.

Mitchell and Exum became friends when they were children, as their fathers knew each other through playing and coaching basketball.

The 19-year-old Mitchell, who produced a stunning finish to win the national 400m title in Melbourne last April, jokingly admits to being "pretty jealous" of the salary Exum will command as an emerging NBA talent.

I'm running against Olympians, so I'm hoping they can take me around the track in a quick time.

Morgan Mitchell

But she is more impressed by the fact Exum has broken through in a sport dominated by the United States and wants to use his example as she embarks on a senior career in track and field.

"I do take a bit of inspiration, I'm thinking 'man, an 18-year-old being the fifth draft pick and he's not even from the US, he's Australian'," Mitchell told Grandstand.

Mitchell, coached by Peter Burke, secured her berth in Australia's Commonwealth Games squad after a personal best and a B qualifying time of 52.22 seconds in claiming her national crown.

Not only did her display book a trip to Glasgow but she also earned selection for May's IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas, where Australia won the 4x400m B final.

Mitchell is under no illusions as to the challenge she will face in progressing through the rounds of the 400m in Glasgow later this month, in light of the strength the event enjoys within the Commonwealth.

England's world champion Christine Ohuruogu is set to race only the 4x400m relay, but Botswana's world championships silver medallist Amantle Montsho and Jamaica's Olympic finalist Novlene Williams-Mills have indicated they will contest the individual event.

Montsho, who won the 2011 world title, has a PB of 49.33 and Williams-Mills has run 49.63.

Mitchell is relishing the opportunity to face such world-class competition and she is hopeful of dipping under the 52-second mark.

"It's going to be a whole new competition and a lot more experienced athletes," she said.

"I'm running against Olympians, so I'm hoping they can take me around the track in a quick time. I'd like to at least run 51.5 and see where I can go from there."

Mitchell admits to tough decision to quit netball

Track and field is not the only sport in which Mitchell has excelled, having been a national junior representative in netball.

Playing netball had largely been her focus during her teens but after representing Australia at the 2012 world junior championships in Barcelona, where she qualified for the semi-finals of the 400m, she committed herself to the track.

Mitchell concedes it was an agonising decision to quit netball, although she is not ruling out a return to the sport in the future.

"I was crying to my mum 'I want to do both' but it was just impossible," she said.

"But I thought 'look, I've already done it in netball, I might as well give athletics a crack'. I couldn't miss out on the possibility to go to Spain, so i took it.

"I still look back and think 'I wish I did a little bit of netball, I wish I could still do it today' but maybe down the track I might go back, I think."

Mitchell will conclude her Australia-based preparations for Glasgow at next weekend's Downunder meet on the Gold Coast.